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Elephant Facts & Research
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Elephants - facts, their spirit, their world
Elephant Spirit
The elephant attains old age and with it, wisdom. They are highly revered for their strength and power.
The Elephant features in many cultures as a powerful symbol. Bushman paintings, African folklore, the famous Genghis Khan and the elephant God in Hinduism all feature the elephant as hero, god and partner in survival.
The Elephant is a symbol of the strength of the mind in Buddhism. Exhibiting noble gentleness, the elephant serves as a symbol of the calm majesty possessed by one who is on the path. Specifically, it embodies the boundless powers of the Buddha which are miraculous aspiration, effort, intention, and analysis.
The elephant is probably the most positive animal symbol known. Here are some of the many lessons we can learn from the elephant:
- Strength
- Wisdom
- Solitude
- Strong sense of loyalty to the family
- Intelligence
Types of Elephants
There are only two species of Proboscidea alive today: the Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Loxodonta africana).
Elephants in Africa
African people regard the elephant with a very deep reverence. The Zulu, Tswana and Tsonga names for the elephant all mean 'the forceful one', 'the unstoppable one'. In Zulu the name for an elephant is indlovu, from the verb dlovu, which means to 'crash through', 'to pierce savagely'.
The fact that the English and the Zulus eventually went to war was directly as a result of the Elephant. The white people led by Dr Hernry Francis Fynn wanted something from Shaka, something he was not prepared to give - Ivory. The Elephant is, in effect, a holy animal to the Zulus much as the cow is to Hindus.
King Shaka during his reign from 1816 to 1928 would be greeted with "Wena Wizulu and Wena indlovu" - Shaka was called the "Great Elephant"
Elephant Facts
Did You Know?
- The elephant is distinguished by its high level of intelligence, interesting behavior, methods of communication and complex social structure.
- Elephants seem to be fascinated with the tusks and bones of dead elephants, fondling and examining them. The myth that they carry them to secret "elephant burial grounds," however, has no factual base.
- Elephants are very social, frequently touching and caressing one another and entwining their trunks.
- Elephants demonstrate concern for members of their families they take care of weak or injured members and appear to grieve over a dead companion.
- Elephants pass 50 litres of urine and up to 100 kilograms of dung a day!
- Elephant in Latin (as ele and phant) means the Huge Arch!
- The gestation period of an elephant is 22 months!
- New-born elephants are born with an incredible mass of 77-113 kg. But they weight only 4% of an adult female's weight and only 2% of an adult male's.
- New-borns may consume 11.4 litres of milk a day
- Young calves commence weaning from the first year of life until the tenth year of life
- The brain of new-born elephants are 30-40% of the size of that of an adult.
- Mothers allocate care and interact differently depending on the baby's sex.
- The brain of the elephant is larger than any other land mammal and it is located in the back of the skull well away from the forehead.
- Elephants are born with 35% of the mass of the adult brain.
- The elephant is among the more intelligent animals.
- The brain weight of the bull African elephant is 4.2 - 5.4 kg.
- The brain weight of the cow African elephant is 3.6 - 4.3 kg.
- Brain development in elephants is similar to that of humans.
- In human terms the trunk represents the nose and upper lip with the two nostrils running through its full length.
- The African elephant trunk has two "fingers" in the end and the Asian elephant has only one.
- Elephants use their trunks to rub an itchy eye or scratch its ear. Trunks are also used to threaten, and to throw objects
- An elephant drinks by filling its trunk with water and then pouring the water into its mouth
- Elephants can use their trunks as a snorkel when swimming in water.
- The trunk is an exploratory organ in which much of what the elephant experiences comes from the trunk. The African elephant has ears that average at least three times the size of the Asian elephant.
- Baby elephants take up to six months to learn how to use their trunk.
- Ears are used as signaling organs in the African elephant
- Ears are used to regulate body temperature and it is used to cool the elephant down as the body of the elephant has no sweat glands.
- Ears are used as a protective feature in the African elephant to ward off potential threats.
- Each elephant's ear is unique and is used as a type of fingerprint for identification.
- There seems to be an absence of sweat glands in the elephant.
- The natural skin colour is greyish black, but the apparent colour is determined by the soil of the land (this is caused by the elephant throwing mud over its back The elephant's foot is formed in such a way that it is essentially walking on tiptoe, with a tough and fatty part of connective tissue for the sole.
- This spongy "shock absorber" helps an elephant to move silently.
- The sole of the foot is ridged and pitted; this contributes to the sure- footedness of the elephant for a large variety of terrain.
- An elephants five toes are buried inside the flesh of the foot.
- Not all toes have toenails.
- The circumference of the forefoot is approximately equal to half the shoulder height!
Tale of the Trunk
The elephant's trunk is both incredibly gentle and powerful. The African Elephant has two finger-like points on the end of its trunk, and it can pick up fruit the size of a marble -- or a branch a foot thick. It is an incredibly versatile tool: it is used for smelling, breathing, and touching, not to mention drinking and eating. Mothers caress their young with their trunks; infants use theirs to investigate everything from plants to playmates.
The trunk is also a hose, whether for a drink or a dust bath. (A coating of dust, like mud, repels sun and insects). To drink, an elephant sucks water into its trunk, pokes the open end in its mouth, and releases the water to let it drain down its gullet. If an elephant loses the use of its trunk, it will die.
Elephants as critical links in the survival of Animals in Africa
When it is dry and water is low, an elephant will dig holes to find underground springs, drawing as much as two gallons at a time with its trunk. These new elephant created wells provide a water source for other wildlife who depend on them for survival. After elephants leave an area, smaller creatures rush to the watering holes dug by the elephants. Throughout their daily lives, elephants are the landscape architects essential for creating worn paths through the thick forests, excavating trees in the open savannahs, and unearthing water wherever it is needed.
Plucking fruit from trees with their flexible trunks, elephants feed themselves -- and help forests regenerate. After having walked many miles, the elephants excrete the seeds of the fruit, which sprout in fertile dung piles and create new trees in other parts of the forest. Recent studies have shown that 90 different tree species depend on hungry elephants in order to prosper. Without elephants, Africa would look vastly different.
Early Life of an Elephant
An elephant calf is usually born into an extended family, headed by an older female elephant who serves as Matriarch. Elephant's families live in cohesive groups of females and their young. Adult males leave the herd at 14 years of age, and either range alone or join other bull elephants in "bachelor herds," rejoining females only at breeding times. The caretaking and protecting babies from predators is a herd effort, but the mother is responsible for providing the 250-pound newborn with milk. Other female elephants learn how to care for babies and serve as nannies or "allomothers".
After five years of rearing a calf, the mother gives birth to a new infant, weaning the now adolescent calf at the same time. By then, the young elephant weighs nearly a ton and has learned how to forage on available vegetation. Males tend to leave their mothers earlier than females, with young bulls beginning to wander beyond the protective family circle at the early age of six.
Elephant Communication
Elephants use infrasound much like a dolphin uses echolocation.
In the mid-1980s, Poole and biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University discovered that elephants communicate in part through calls with infrasonic components, very low-frequency noises that can be detected as far as a mile or more away.
It is interesting to recognize that the world of the elephant is much different from our world. An elephant typically does not have as far reaching eyesight as humans do, but his/her sense of smell is unparalleled. An elephant is capable of hearing sound waves well below human hearing limitation (approx. 30 Hertz). Typically, an elephant's numerous different rumbles will span between 14 and 35 Hertz. The far reaching use of high pressure infrasound opens the elephant's spatial experience far beyond our limited capabilities.
The infrasound level is a range of sound waves which humans are incapable of perceiving with their own ears. However with the help of certain devices, much can be learned about the elephant and their modes of communication.
In developing a systematic catalog of known elephant calls, the Savanna Elephant Vocalization Project draws on voluminous information collected from years of field studies in Amboseli.
The team logged many of the various calls made by individual elephants and recorded details such as when, where, and under what social conditions they occurred. The different sounds are being recorded on disk; still images and video films are also being made to show the elephants' behavior during the calls.
Poole is measuring characteristics of the call such as frequency, bandwidth, and duration to differentiate them.
Samples of about 80 percent of the different known calls have been collected. "We have a huge task to measure and analyze the calls and to describe the contextual information," said Poole.
Their elaborate system of communication is necessary to maintain a complex social structure based on strong family relationships.
Adult male elephants live and travel alone or in loose association with other bulls, while elderly females (matriarchs) head family groups consisting of other female relatives and their young. These female units are organized into a structured system of bond groups and clans and usually stay together for life.
"Like primate social grooming, elephants use vocalization to reinforce bonds that hold the group together," said Poole. "We see this happening several times a day."
Katy Payne has observed that elephants "are as emotional and attached to family members as human beings are, and are very much aware of the experience of others."
The male and female elephants have developed distinctive calls that are adapted to their different roles.
Like humans and other highly social species, the savanna elephants depend on a large repertoire of calls and other methods of communication to interact appropriately with others and exchange important information relevant to their welfare and survival.
Besides using vocal sounds, elephants also communicate through touch, sight, and chemical signals.
Stanford University biologist Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell has found, for example, that elephants appear to communicate in part by sensing seismic vibrations through their feet, with the soft skin on the pads of their feet acting like the head of a drum.
A well-developed communication network is even more crucial for elephants because individuals and groups-perhaps mates, relatives, or friends-roaming their native habitats are often far apart from one another.
Powerful infrasonic calls enable them to send messages and warnings, sometimes over long distances. The elephants, said Poole, are sending messages such as "Hello, I'm here. Where are you?" "Help, I'm lost." "I'm ready for a mate." Or "We are a force to be reckoned with."
"It's a safari postcard moment: A family of elephants rush together, rumbling, trumpeting, and screaming, their chorused voices deafening in the wilderness".
Joyce Poole has has found that the elephants use more than 70 kinds of vocal sounds and 160 different visual and tactile signals, expressions, and gestures in their day-to-day interactions.
Distinctive expressions of joy, anger, sympathy, sexual desire, playfulness, and many other emotions are among their vocal repertoire.
Poole and others have found that the elephants not only trumpet their calls but squeal, cry, scream, roar, snort, rumble, and groan.
Calls range from as soft as a whisper to more powerful than a jackhammer; from as abrasive as a rooster's crow to fluid as water gurgling and pulsating through an underground tunnel. Some of the sounds are so low-pitched they aren't audible to human ears.
"Elephants are extremely exuberant and expressive animals," said Poole, an American who grew up in Kenya and returned as a student researcher in 1975. "The emotion and energy in groups when they come together after they've been separated is incredibly powerful. That kind of behavior occurs in many situations."
One of the calls identified so far is what Poole describes as the "let's go" rumble, which is used to suggest "I want to go in this direction-let's go together." A drawn-out rumbling, it lasts about five to six seconds and is usually repeated about every 80 seconds or so until the caller gets results.
Another is the "contact call." An elephant calling for a distant family member emits a powerful reverberating sound and then lifts its head and spreads its ears listening for an answer. If it receives one, it responds with an explosive sound.
"What I think goes on in these long distant calls," said Poole, "is an elephant gets an answer and then it responds, 'We're in touch.' "
Toward Conservation
Poole's research is part of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, launched in 1972 by renowned elephant researchers Cynthia Moss and Harry Croze. Amboseli is a 150-square-kilometer (57-square-mile) park in southern Kenya near the border with Tanzania and near Mount Kilimanjaro,
The project, which is affiliated with the Kenya Wildlife Service, it is longest-running study of free-living elephants in the world.
Studies at Amboseli by more than a dozen researchers have produced a comprehensive picture of elephant family life, behavior, and communication. The project has collected an extraordinary amount of data on individual members of the park's population of a thousand elephants.
The work of Poole and other elephant researchers is needed to plan effective programs for elephants' survival.
Today, Payne and other researchers are using this knowledge to develop ways of acoustically monitoring and studying forest elephants in central and West Africa. They are in grave danger from poaching because of the quality of their ivory, but they are so reclusive that little is know about them, which makes conservation planning difficult.
The biggest challenge related to the protection of savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), said Poole, is how to reconcile conflicts arising from human competition for access to their habitat as a result of population growth and poverty.
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